Technological advances in the computing space are constantly being developed to provide users with a vast array of tools to enhance business productivity, information access and communications. For example, user-regulated Internet-based information sources continue to evolve within the Internet community. By way of specific example, many of these web-based encyclopedia or information sources enable users to collaboratively develop and share information by updating records and providing information that was otherwise not easily accessible. Today, these collaborative information sources are available in many different areas including, encyclopedia-type information, travel-based information, and product rating information.
The Internet and the World Wide Web continues to evolve rapidly with respect to both volume of information and number of users. As will be understood, the Internet is a collection of interconnected computer networks accessible by anyone with an Internet connection. The World Wide Web, or simply the web, is a service that connects numerous Internet accessible sites via hyperlinks and uniform resource locators (URLs). As a whole, the web provides a global space for accumulation, exchange and dissemination of information. Further, the number of users continues to increase as more and more pertinent information becomes accessible over the web.
To date, one particular user-regulated online information site has approximately 8.5 million articles in 253 languages, comprising a combined total of over 1.4 billion words for all related sites. The English language edition of this site passed the 2 million article mark in early September, 2007, and as of October, 2007, it had over 2.05 million articles consisting of over 890 million words. The articles within these sites are most often written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. As well, the vast majority of them can be edited by anyone with access to the Internet.
As the popularity of these user-collaborative sites continues to grow, they have been dubbed as the ‘wiki-model.’ The word ‘wiki’ refers to the collaborative website structure. In other words, a ‘wiki’ often refers to computer software that allows users to easily create, edit, and link web pages. Conventionally, ‘wikis’ were often used to create collaborative websites, power community websites, and were increasingly being installed by businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets or for use in knowledge management.